Former Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz said Blue and White would stop contesting the Oct. 27 election after polling below the parliamentary threshold, with neither main bloc projected to win a majority.
Gantz announced the decision on Oct. 19. Parties need at least 3.25% of the vote to enter Israel’s 120-seat Knesset. Blue and White will still appear on the ballot, The Times of Israel reported.
Channel 12’s Oct. 19 poll projected 55 seats for Zionist opposition parties, 51 for parties aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 14 for two Arab parties. The Zionist opposition group and Netanyahu-aligned parties each fall short of the 61 seats needed for a majority. Parties opposed to Netanyahu account for 69 projected seats in total, including the Arab parties. Channel 12 said it conducted the survey before Gantz’s announcement. Earlier coverage of the election polling also showed the main blocs short of a majority.
Gantz called for a broad Zionist unity government across the rival blocs. He served in a unity government with Netanyahu from 2020 to 2021, then joined an emergency war cabinet that he left in June 2024. Al Jazeera reported that Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot called Gantz’s decision “responsible.”
Voting is scheduled for Oct. 27. Israel’s Central Elections Committee has set Nov. 4 for publication of the results.
